EXILE TO PARADISE

ONCE THE HIGHEST FORM OF PUNISHMENT, A TRIP TO JAPAN’S SADO ISLAND IS NOW A CULTURAL TREAT

FOR A MILLENNIUM, the isolated Sado Island in the Sea of Japan was considered the perfect place to banish troublesome dissidents including poet Hozumi no Asomi Oyu, disgraced Emperor Juntoku, dogmatic Buddhist monk Nichiren and eminent Noh playwright Zeami.

But that trickle of spirited nobles and intellectuals has inadvertently blessed the island with a rich and distinctive cultural heritage. For example, Zeami’s Noh theatre is now concentrated in Sado, with a third of all the Noh stages in Japan. The ancient art comes to life in the summer, with performances held in shrines – or

outdoors around the glow of a bonfire.

The contrarian spirit of those early exiles also manifested in onidaiko. In the rest of Japan, oni are fearsome horned demons – to be chased away and guarded against. But on Sado, the oni are heralded as heroes, with the special onidaiko (demon drum) dance performed to honour these spirits.

In the 17th century, the discovery of gold turned the island from shunned backwater to economic hotspot, and for 350 years the Sado Gold Mine was Japan’s

largest. Today, the abandoned mine offers visitors a

chance to dig around in the island’s unique past.

Make sure to dig also into the island’s unique red clay ceramics, known as Mumyoiyaki-ware, and culinary delicacies from impeccable rice to Le Lectier pears.

Sado now fosters another kind of exile: the toki, or crested ibis. By the 1980s the birds had almost been hunted to extinction – but a successful breeding programme turned Sado Island into the last bastion for wild tokis: a symbol of the island’s unique, resilient spirit.